Early spring and the beginning of summer were usually the period during which foreigners made final decisions on the choice of a university and field of studies. Recruitment departments were flooded with questions about conditions of studies, accommodation, scholarship opportunities and consent to additional work. The pandemic complicated plans of hundreds of foreigners who intended to study in Wroclaw.
Secondary school final examinations in Ukraine will be held in June, and there will be no such examinations in Georgia.
Formalities are one of the biggest problems. In many countries, as in Poland, coronavirus enforced a change in the secondary school examination calendar. Secondary school final examinations in Poland are scheduled for June, and their results will be known at the beginning of August. Due to such shifts, secondary school final examination resits will take place only at the end of August and at the beginning of September.
In Ukraine, the ultimate time of carrying out External Independent Evaluation, i.e., secondary school final examination results, depends on the end of the quarantine period. The Ukrainian Ministry of Education has two scenarios in store. If the quarantine ends at the beginning of June, the secondary school final examination will be held on 25th June. If the quarantine period is prolonged, secondary school final examinations will be held on 25th August.
Russia’s government stressed that secondary school final examination might be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The end of July and the beginning of August are taken into consideration.
In Belarus, no decisions on the postponement of secondary school final examinations have been made. Secondary school final examinations will take place on the first days of June.
In Kazakhstan, secondary school leavers taking up studies abroad will take examinations online. In Georgia, secondary school final examinations in 2020 have been abandoned. In Armenia, the annual grade will be the examination grade. Certificates of secondary education are to be issued by 25th May.
Universities: We do not forget about you
Wroclaw schools of higher education had to take the changing international situation into account.
‘We do not want to resign from foreign students. We have to consider difficulties in travel between countries and other limitations resulting from requirements imposed by particular countries,’ says Paulina Boroń-Kacperek, Head of the Recruitment Office of the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences.
For this reason, university authorities consider postponing the start date of the academic year even by two weeks. This may allow persons from countries where secondary school final examinations will take place at the latest date (e.g., Ukraine or Ireland) to submit documents.
Within the scope of the Study in Wroclaw project, schools of higher education promote themselves, e.g., in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
Paulina Boroń-Kacperek: ‘Our foreign representatives say that part of persons who took studies in Poland into consideration are wondering whether they will afford costs of arrival and education in Poland. The number of foreigners may drop in places where studying is the most expensive.’
In order to minimise damages caused by coronavirus, schools of higher education invest in all remote forms of learning and contact. In the University of Business, there are attempts to hold a summer online Polish course. If this is necessary, foreigners who cannot arrive in Wroclaw will also start the new academic year in the online mode.
Study in Wroclaw: Contacts with partners abroad
Mirosław Lebiedź from the Wroclaw Agglomeration Development Agency, co-ordinator of the Study in Wroclaw project that supports the recruitment of foreign students for Wroclaw schools of higher education:
‘We also try to react quickly to the current situation in Poland and around the world. Postponements of secondary school final examinations and other examinations result in serious rearrangements of usual recruitment procedures and times.’
For many years, co-ordinators of the Study in Wroclaw project along with partner universities: the University of Wroclaw, the Wroclaw University of Technology, the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, the Wroclaw Banking School, the University of Lower Silesia, the Wroclaw University of Economics and the University of Business have taken part in dozens of educational fairs and promotional events in such countries as Ukraine, Belarus or Russia. They met thousands of young people, convincing hundreds into choosing Wroclaw as the place of study.
‘The cancellation or postponement of a majority of fair events forces us to rearrange the entire schedule of project activities,’ informs Mirosław Lebiedź. ‘We have planned online promotional campaigns for the period from May till December 2020, making use of the contacts that we have gathered for years. Webinars for foreign students will be organisers, and an online consultation point is functioning.’
